The People’s Republic of Flying Dog is now in session. It’s happy hour at Flying Dog Brewery, so here is your latest dose of irreverence.

Sample Our New 20th Anniversary Brew, And Come To Our Beer Dinner

Flying Dog Brewery got into this beer racket in 1990 in the form of a small brewpub in Aspen, Colorado. For those of you who aren’t mathematically inclined, that means 2010 marks our 20th anniversary. For those of you who are more familiar with dog years, you could say it’s our 93rd anniversary, making us one of the oldest craft breweries around (which admittedly sounds like fuzzy math). That being said, we’re starting off our 20th anniversary celebratory year a little early. Join us in Denver for GABF next month to help us kick off a year full of festivities.

Great American Beer Festival tickets are going fast. So fast, in fact, that Friday night and Saturday Afternoon sessions are already SOLD OUT. So if you want to come, buy your tickets for Thursday or Saturday night. STAT.

As we mentioned two weeks ago, we’re once again throwing our incredibly bad ass (and free) FBAG party on Friday, September 25th (3-6PM). Join upwards of 1000 people at our FBAG party, and be some of the first people to sample our brand-spanking-new 20th Anniversary beer.

Like last year, we’ll be making our famous Gonzo Beer Brats for you to enjoy while you walk around and sample our award-winning ales. Also like last year, FBAG is a stop on the BeerAdvocate Pub Crawl. We had the Alström brothers and their huge mass of pub crawlers swing by to spice things up (especially since they started drinking well before noon), and looking forward to it again this time around. Music will be provided by Rob Drabkin and his band, as they totally rocked last year’s FBAG (watch this HD video to see what last year was like).

A quick note that we’ll be hosting a beer dinner at Brauns Bar & Grill in Denver the Saturday of GABF. We’ll have ticket purchasing information at flyingdognews.com. Check out the menu at the event page of our website.

Go Gonzo(Fest)

We’re still giving you the chance to save $10 on your GonzoFest ticket, but GonzoFest is rapidly approaching! We’re only about 2 weeks away from our annual Throwdown in Frederick Maryland on September 12. So click on the image above to go to our secure ordering site and get your tickets before time runs out. We’ve also secured discounted hotel rooms the weekend of GonzoFest (although deals can also be found on Hotwire/Travelocity/Kayak-type sites): Courtyard Marriott ($99/night)
Holiday Inn at Francis Scott Key Mall ($99/night)
Hilton Garden Inn ($99/night)
Another cool thing is that we’ve partnered with Yellow Cab of Frederick. On Sept. 12, mention Gonzofest when you get picked up by a Yellow Cab of Frederick taxi and get a $10 fare between downtown and the Brewery ($10 total fare, max. of 4 people). We want you to drink responsibly, so please use designated drivers and taxis.
We’re also conducting our Hunter S. Thompson lookalike contest, and awesome Gonzo-themed prizes will be given to some of the best costumes. So start putting your outfit together. Need inspiration? This is a good place to start.

And as you probably know, GonzoFest admission includes: Beer, Music, Souvenir Mug, Chili Competition Samples and all-around Good Karma: A portion of the proceeds benefit United Way of Frederick County.

We’re really excited for GonzoFest this year, get more information and buy tickets at our GonzoFest website.

Work With The Ingredients You Have To Come Up With Something Delicious: An Interview With Lucy Saunders At beerdinners.com

Do you ever eat food and drink beer at the same time? (That’s a stupid question, actually, because who doesn’t like that shit?) Well, if you’re in the 100% of people who answered yes, you should be checking out beerdinners.com, our website dedicated to pairing great craft beer with great food.

Last week we posted a recent interview we conducted with Lucy Saunders, one of the most respected beer and food writers around. Aside from writing some wonderful books about beer and food, she’s also an accomplished cook. Check out our interview over at beerdinners.com.

Beer and Loathing in Columbus, Ohio

Studio 35 is Columbus, Ohio’s oldest independent movie theater and draft house. Recently, Studio 35 showed Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas and featured a plethora of Flying Dog beer on tap. We found out about this via Studio 35’s twitter site. We were also contacted via twitter by Shaun Adams, who attended the event. He snapped some photos and was nice enough to answer a few questions about the venue, the beer, and the experience of watching Fear & Loathing while drinking beer inspired by the late, great Dr. Gonzo, Hunter S. Thompson.

Read our interview with Shaun over at flyingdognews.com

Cheers! Until next time, -Josh

P.S.: We asked Ralph Steadman for some fun art this week and below is what he passed on to us. Here’s his caption (and another reason we love you, Ralph). “Here is a mean face t give to your imbibers as though the world owed them a living. They are only owed one beer. After that they pay!!!”

The People’s Republic of Flying Dog is now in session. It’s happy hour at Flying Dog Brewery, so here is your latest dose of irreverence.

Nothing Says Father’s Day Like A Little Doggie Style (T-Shirt) From Flying Dog Brewery

Father’s Day is right around the corner. There are a few ways to handle this. You can either expect a tie or boxer shorts from your wife and kids, but doesn’t that get a little old?

The other way to make sure you get a bad-ass gift is to buy yourself some Flying Dog Merchandise from our brand new online store and ship it to yourself. Then go buy a card, write it to yourself, wrap it and present it to yourself on Father’s Day, on behalf of your loved ones. Because who knows what you want better than you do?

Along with the launch of our spiffy new website, we’ve also recently relaunched our online store. We know that you haven’t been able to satisfy your itch for Flying Dog merch recently, so here’s your chance. Look for more new items to be popping up in the near future.

Are you looking for specific merchandise? Leave us a suggestion on our website by selecting either the “Contact The Dog” tab on the right, or the “Feedback” button on the left. We want to hear from you!

Get To Know Gonzo: Pick Up Your Pencils, It’s The Gonzovision Test

Did you watch Fear & Loathing in Gonzovision from the last newsletter? I said there would be a test, and that’s a threat I’m willing to follow through with. Don’t worry, though, it’s an easy one and there aren’t really any wrong answers.

Question: What was your favorite part of the video?

Email your answers (a couple sentences long) to joshm {at} flyingdogales {dot} com and I’ll put the best answers into this section in an upcoming newsletter. If we publish your response, the reward will be a nice discount to our online store. But even better, you’ll be earning the respect of your follow citizens of the People’s Republic of Flying Dog. The deadline for responses is Wednesday, June 24 and we’ll put the best answers in the July 1 newsletter.

Didn’t watch? Here are links to it again.

Part 1     Part 2     Part 3

—

We’ll be bringing you something Gonzo-themed from the world each time the newsletter comes out. Have a link to send us? Email it to joshm {at} flyingdogales {dot} com.

Free Flying Dog Poster At Participating Retailers (And A Contest!)

It’s summertime and the living is easy. Especially when you can pick up a 6-pack of Flying Dog, your favorite beer.

Look for a FREE poster with our display at selected retailers in your area. And when you take a photo of you and the poster hung up in a creative place or in a creative way, you might just win something cool, like a Flying Dog flag.

Read more (and see all the rules and regulations) on our contest page.

Savor’s Flavor

This past weekend was the 2nd annual Savor event. A few thousand folks came together to drink the country’s best craft beer paired with a wide variety of gourmet food. As with last year, we sent a large contingent down to Washington, DC to meet consumers and pour our award-winning beer.

Gwen Conley, our Quality Control and Sensory Goddess had this to say:

The Passion Fruit-Mango Mousse Cups that were paired with Woody Creek White were AWESOME! People also really loved our Woody Creek White paired with the Chicken Breast a la Blanche de Chambly (which was chicken skewers with a goat cheese sauce). The Maytag Blue Cheese was excellent as well. That was paired with a lot of different things but really was good with any of the Double IPA’s.

Gwen’s husband Bill was on camera-duty the whole evening, and we made a Flickr photoset with the images here. Don’t miss the interesting fellow they met on the Metro after the event.

Art of the Week: Ralph Steadman Isn’t The Only Ink Slinger We Know

Art of the Week is a little different this week. We got a tweet last week from Tyler Broadrick of Lake Oconee, Georgia. He told us that he got something special. In this case, it’s a tattoo on his back.

We talked a little with Tyler, and here’s what he had to say about us:

I got the tattoo mainly because of my love for Flying Dog’s ales and that it was designed by Ralph Steadman. I also like the design of the Flying Dog wings and the story behind Flying Dog’s birth. I love both Hunter S. Thompson and Ralph Steadman and enjoyed the connection between them and the brewery. I am a fan of the Snake Dog IPA, Doggie Style Classic Pale Ale, Tire Bite Golden Ale, Woody Creek White, Dogtoberfest Marzen among many others. What I like most about Flying Dog Brewery is your originality and its background. Flying Dog ales stand alone in terms of taste and originality.

Do you have some Flying Dog art on your person? Let us know with an email and we’ll post some of the cool ones in future newsletters.

Cheers! Until next time, -Josh

The People’s Republic of Flying Dog is now in session. It’s happy hour at Flying Dog Brewery, so here is your latest dose of irreverence.

Starting Out At The Atlantic City Beer Festival, Ending Up Under The Boardwalk

“Oooooh, under the boardwalk, down by the sea,
At the [Atlantic City Beer Festival] with my baby is where I’ll be.”

Matt Brophy, our VP of Brewing Operations, is from New Jersey. But we try not to hold that against him. That being said, last weekend we had a bunch of people cruise up to the 2009 Atlantic City Beer Festival, including Matt, Flying Dog CEO Jim Caruso, VP of sales Jim Lutz and Mid-Atlantic Sales bad ass Joe Gomez. Here’s what Joe had to say about this festival:

“Holy Shit, that was a lot of people to see in one day! I would say on Saturday alone there were easily 7,000 people in that space. As usual, our booth was Bumpin’ from Noon till 10:15 pm. Sunday.”

Sometimes pictures speak louder than words, so check out our Flickr photoset from the 2009 Atlantic City Beer Festival.

Get to Know Gonzo #2: Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll. Oh Yeah, And Motorcycle Gangs.

Playboy magazine. The leading men’s magazine in the world. It also has some pretty hot chicks in it, too. You’ve probably heard of it. Well, recently we were sent an article about their list of the Top 20 Books Every Man Must Read. On that list, mixed among a bunch of other classic books, is Hunter S. Thompson’s Hell’s Angels. This is a book from 1966 and documents Hunter’s take on the Hell’s Angels while he infiltrated their ranks. If Playboy tells you to read it, then you pretty much need to be reading this. Hunter’s time with the Hell’s Angels is also spoken about pretty extensively in Alex Gibney’s Gonzo, so check it out, too. (via @jeffporn)

We’ll be bringing you something Gonzo-themed from the world each time the newsletter comes out. Have a link to send us? Email it to joshm [at] flyingdogales [dot] com.

The Flying Dog 2009 Summer World Tour

Flying Dog Brewery reaches to the four corners of the world - from 45 states in the US to the EU, Singapore, Australia, (soon to be) India, and a whole host of other places worldwide. OK, so we’re not traveling all around the world, but we’ll be all over the country this summer at a beer festival in your neck of the woods (hopefully). We’re still updating our events page, but here’s a brief list of where we’ll be this summer:

4/04/2009 - Beer, Bourbon and BBQ (MD)

4/11/2009 - Breckenridge Massive Beer Festival (CO)

4/17/2009 - 17th Annual Peoria International Beer Festival (IL)

4/24/2009 - Microbreweries for the Environment (CO)

4/25/2009 - 11th Annual Manayunk Brew Extravaganza (PA)

5/30/2009 - SAVOR: An American Craft Beer & Food Experience (DC)

5/30/2009 - Beer, Bourbon and BBQ (VA)

6/20/2009 - Beer, Bourbon and BBQ (MD/DC)

7/11/2009 - Oshkosh Jaycees Brews and Blues (WI)

7/18/2009 - Breckenridge Massive Beer Festival (CO)

Flying Dog March Beer Radness

The Washington Post is once again doing their beer version of the College Basketball bracket called “Beer Madness.” We had a good run last year, but unfortunately were left off of this year’s bracket. Why? We’re not exactly sure.

But we’re OK with the whole “we got left off this made-up competition” thing. In fact, we’re so fine with it that we decided to do our own Flying Dog beer bracket where the only thing that counts is your vote! Check out Flying Dog Beer Radness at flyingdognews.com to vote for your favorite beers.

We’ve also decided to pair the weekend’s basketball games with Flying Dog beer. Beer is often paired with food, but beer is also paired with personal experiences and events. While you’re watching basketball games in the following cities, we recommend you try these beers to match:

Boston, MA (Pitt/Xavier, Nova/Duke on Thursday): From the looks of it, spring has sprung in New England. Try out our Spring Seasonal Garde Dog Biere De Garde to make you feel like the spring thaw is happening.

Glendale, AZ (Purdue/UCONN, Mizzou/Memphis on Thursday): Well, it’s going to be in the 80s in Arizona. So if you want to feel like you’re there, look for something rather refreshing, like a Tire Bite Golden Ale or Old Scratch Amber Lager.

Indianapolis, IN (Zona/Louisville, Kansas/Michigan State on Friday): This game depends on who you’re rooting for. If it’s Arizona, you’ll probably want to be drinking Road Dog Porter, as it’s the big-time underdog beer that took on an entire state government (and won). If not, you should probably go with Doggie Style Classic Pale Ale, whose seeding in our minds never wanes.

Memphis, TN (UNC/Gonzaga, Syracuse/Oklahoma on Friday): Watching the games in Memphis? Well, this one will be a food pairing because Memphis is one of the Meccas of barbecue. Which makes Gonzo Imperial Porter or Double Dog Double Pale Ale your natural selections. Plus if Syracuse loses, it jacks up my whole bracket. So I’ll need something to dull the pain.